Secondary menu
Human Rights Watch
Research is Not a Crime
The recent arrest of a prominent political analyst on Myanmar visiting China demonstrates Beijing’s intensifying intolerance of any independent voices or viewpoints not to their liking.
On June 3, Chinese authorities reportedly detained Min Zin, a US citizen from Myanmar and the executive director of the Institute for Strategy and Policy-Myanmar, as he flew into Yunnan province for meetings at the invitation of an academic institution. The Chinese Foreign Ministry confirmed the arrest, stating that Min Zin had engaged in “espionage activities that endanger China’s national security.”
Min Zin’s think tank documents the Myanmar political landscape, including China-Myanmar relations since the Myanmar military’s 2021 coup. China is the Myanmar junta’s primary source of financial, military, and diplomatic support, and junta leader Min Aung Hlaing met with China’s President Xi Jinping on June 16 during a weeklong visit to China, Hlaing’s first since he installed himself as president following sham elections.
The US State Department has acknowledged the arrest but not made any further public comment on China’s actions. The Trump administration has demonstrated little interest in raising human rights concerns in China or elsewhere, nor has much credibility to do so, for a variety of reasons.
The US government should have an interest in better countering China’s expanding global censorship of critical voices. The Chinese government benefits when less information is known about its already-opaque governance and its harmful actions and abuses, both inside and outside the country. This is why Beijing has long muzzled domestic and diasporic voices and why self-censorship among foreign scholars studying China is so common. Censorship impedes efforts to respond to the government’s repressive behavior.
Beyond stifling voices, there is additional damage from the government’s internal and transnational repression: policymakers, journalists, and people everywhere know less about China, leaving everyone unable to make informed decisions about the country, or question Beijing’s rosy account of itself.
Moreover, Min Zin is a US citizen, and under existing US policy, the State Department is supposed to escalate their interventions when citizens are, as in this case, wrongfully detained. Conducting research is not a crime. The State Department should formally declare that Min Zin’s detention is a wrongful detention, a determination that will help ensure his case is raised with Chinese officials at a higher level of prioritization. China’s growing attacks on free speech cannot be met with silence.
Congressional Proposal Could Deepen US Complicity
Buried in the US$1.15 trillion National Defense Authorization Act is a provision that would deepen US military cooperation with Israel while walling that cooperation off from further congressional oversight.
Section 219 creates the role of an “executive agent” focused on folding Israeli technology into US weapons programs, and vice versa, including in missile and air defense technologies as well as artificial intelligence, quantum computing, cyberwarfare, and autonomous systems. Once implemented, the provision would speed efforts to embed Israeli technologies into US weapons systems in ways almost never codified into law, even for allies. As the protracted experience with unwinding Turkish participation in the F-35 program shows, practically, integration binds the United States to rely on producers in ways that become next to impossible to walk back later, even if lawmakers want to.
Because the defense bill is considered a “must-pass” measure to keep the military funded, legislators often add other elements, including provisions like section 219 that, ordinarily, could draw fierce opposition and that might not be passed on their own.
Section 219 also calls for “data fusion.” In defense doctrine, data fusion means combining feeds from many sensors and intelligence sources into a single targeting picture. The United States would be absorbing Israeli data, which may have been collected under problematic mass surveillance programs. Moreover, section 219 would be reinforced by section 622 of the intelligence bill, which mandates intelligence sharing and would further promote combining US intelligence streams with Israeli ones that could then be used by the Israeli military for targeting. This is a risky proposition considering the Israeli military’s track record, including its use of digital tools, which Human Rights Watch found risk civilian harm due to reliance on faulty data and inexact approximations.
The United States has already provided the Israelis with intelligence they have used in operations, which Human Rights Watch has warned could amount to aiding and abetting war crimes. But under section 219, intelligence feeds could end up permanently flowing into Israel’s systems at the sole discretion and oversight of the US secretary of defense. Because section 219 is pushing for integration rather than sales or transfers, further congressional approvals wouldn’t be required.
Israeli forces’ widespread war crimes, crimes against humanity, and its ongoing acts of genocide in Gaza should give the United States pause about closer military association. Instead, section 219 proposes to deepen entanglement, in a way that makes the risks of complicity ongoing. Legislators still have a chance to strip this damaging proposal out.
Ecuador: Prosecutor Shot and Killed
(Washington, DC) – A prosecutor in the Ecuadorian coastal city of Manta was shot and killed on June 14, 2026, the most recent in a series of killings of judicial officials in Ecuador, Human Rights Watch said today. Gloria Alexandra Bravo Cedeño is the third prosecutor to be killed in Manta since 2022. Ecuadorian authorities should ensure a prompt, credible, and impartial investigation into the death of the prosecutor and take urgent measures to protect judicial officials.
An armed assailant reportedly shot Bravo dead as she was walking to her car. Her sister was also killed in the attack. Bravo worked on cases involving homicides, kidnappings, and organized crime in Manabí province, one of Ecuador’s most violent. She had also investigated a massive fire that destroyed several vessels in Manta, as well as recent drone attacks against three fishing vessels off the coast of the Galapagos Islands. Police reportedly said the attack on Bravo appeared to deliberately target her. The Attorney General’s Office said the prosecutor’s killing was “in retaliation for the institution’s frontal and permanent fight against organized crime.”
“The killing of prosector Bravo is a tragedy, but sadly not an isolated one in Ecuador,” said Juanita Goebertus, Americas director at Human Rights Watch. “President Daniel Noboa’s government should stop treating the justice system as an afterthought and give its officials the protection and resources they urgently need.”
Bravo had worked in Manta for several years, handling cases involving homicides, kidnappings, and organized crime. She was recently transferred to Montecristi.
She recently investigated the drone strikes between January and March on the three fishing vessels Fiorella, Negra Francisca Duarte II, and Don Maca. Human Rights Watch is investigating who was responsible for these strikes, and in May a Human Rights Watch researcher spoke with Bravo about her investigation.
“Being a prosecutor is very difficult in this context of organized crime,” Bravo said then. “The danger is always present.”
The other prosecutors killed in Manta since 2022 are Luz Marina Delgado and Marcelo Vásconez. Another two officials from the prosecutor’s office were killed in May. The Observatory of Rights and Justice, an Ecuadorian human rights organization that monitors conditions for justice officials, has recorded 26 killings of judges, prosecutors, and other justice personnel across Ecuador since 2020. On May 12, Judge Lady Pachar was shot dead in Machala by two men on a motorcycle while traveling without her bodyguards. She had received threats.
Judges and prosecutors in Ecuador often lack the most basic tools and security measures needed to investigate organized crime groups. Some provinces do not have sufficient personnel to remove bodies from crime scenes or conduct ballistics analysis, even in major cities such as Guayaquil. Many prosecutors and judges, including those at risk, do not have access to armored vehicles or basic protective equipment.
Ecuador has become the country with the highest homicide rate in South America, with a rate of 51 per 100,000 inhabitants in 2025. During recent years, civil society organizations, authorities, and media outlets have documented killings of public officials, journalists, and politicians. The coastal province of Manabí, where Manta is located, has been become one of the three most violent provinces in Ecuador, with over 1,271 homicides in 2025, according to the Ecuadorian Observatory on Organized Crime.
The Ecuadorian government has an obligation to protect the lives and safety of all people within its territory, Human Rights Watch said. The authorities also have an obligation to conduct a prompt, independent, and thorough investigation into the killing of Bravo and bring those responsible, including those who ordered the attack, to justice.
The government should put in place a comprehensive risk assessment system and provide effective protection to justice officials facing credible threats. It should also fill the more than 1,000 vacancies of judges and prosecutors across the country and provide justice officials with the technical, forensic, and logistical resources needed to investigate organized crime effectively.
“Ecuador is unlikely to end its spiral of violence if it does not take urgent steps to protect the very officials investigating criminal groups,” Goebertus said.
Syrian Government Pledges Protection for Children with Disabilities
Syria’s 14-year conflict destroyed vast swathes of the country and killed hundreds of thousands, but it also left behind over 1.5 million Syrians with war-caused disabilities.
Syria’s minister of social affairs, Hind Kabawat, acknowledged this dire situation on June 9 at a UN meeting on the rights of persons with disabilities in New York, calling on international partners to scale up support for rehabilitation and disability rights programs.
Prioritizing disability rights is a positive signal from a new government still finding its footing, and the needs Kabawat described are real and well-documented: nearly 28 percent of Syrians have a disability, almost double the global average.
Human Rights Watch’s 2022 report, “It Was Really Hard to Protect Myself,” found that children with disabilities in Syria faced compounding failures during the fighting: they could not flee attacks safely, they were shut out of schools, and humanitarian programs routinely have overlooked them.
One 18-year-old we interviewed in 2022 had lost her leg in an airstrike five years earlier and still had no prosthetic. She told us she often refused to evacuate during attacks because it was too dangerous to run on crutches. A father told us he could no longer afford hearing aids for his daughter after losing his job and home to the war. Of the 34 children we spoke to, only 1 child was attending school at the time.
Humanitarian operations largely failed these kids. Children with disabilities were routinely excluded from mainstream programs, received inadequate aid, and lost access to services when funding started to dry up. Aid workers admitted they hadn’t been trained on disability inclusion.
Minister Kabawat’s voice on the global stage is exactly the kind of advocacy that can shift attention. Syria’s new government should now make a firm commitment by developing a national disability strategy with concrete timelines that ensures schools are accessible, teachers are trained, and disability inclusion is built into new civil defense and emergency structures.
International donors and UN agencies should likewise ensure disability inclusion is built into reconstruction planning and commit to collecting disaggregated data on children with disabilities so gaps in aid delivery are visible and accountable.
Minister Kabawat’s call gives reason for cautious hope. International partners should meet it with resources, and Syria’s new government should back it with policy.
Rights Defender Sentenced to 8 Years in Azerbaijan
A Baku court’s June 12 decision to convict prominent human rights defender Rufat Safarov on bogus criminal charges and sentence him to eight years in prison is the latest blow to Azerbaijan’s already severely restricted civic space.
Safarov, executive director of the human rights organization Defense Line (Müdafiə Xətti), was convicted by the Baku Court of Grave Crimes on charges of fraud, hooliganism, and intentional infliction of bodily harm. His lawyers said they would appeal.
Authorities arrested Safarov on December 3, 2024, the day he visited the US Embassy in Baku to collect a visa to travel to Washington, DC, where he was due to receive the US Secretary of State's 2024 Human Rights Defender Award. A court ordered him held in pretrial detention, which was extended several times.
The prosecution alleged that Safarov had been given 60,000 Azerbaijani manat, approximately US$ 36,000, to purchase land, which he then embezzled. Safarov denies he was given any money or even knew his accuser and prosecutors were unable to produce a contract, receipt, or other documentary evidence substantiating the allegation. The bodily harm charge also appeared fabricated: a doctor’s report was in the case file, but the alleged victim reportedly acknowledged that he had not undergone a medical examination, and a witness did not confirm the prosecution’s version of the incident.
Safarov heads Defense Line, a civil society organization that documents politically motivated arrests and prosecutions, government corruption, and allegations of torture. He is one of Azerbaijan’s few remaining human rights defenders. In 2015, after publicly raising concerns about abuses and corruption in the Prosecutor General’s Office, where he was working at the time, Safarov was fired, arrested, and later served three years of a nine-year prison sentence on politically motivated charges before being pardoned in 2019.
The timing of Safarov’s arrest, immediately before he was to receive a major international human rights award, strongly suggests that the case is retaliation for his human rights work. His prosecution fits a broader pattern in Azerbaijan of using fabricated or politically motivated criminal charges to silence journalists, activists, opposition figures, and human rights defenders.
Azerbaijani authorities should immediately and unconditionally release Safarov, quash his conviction, and drop all politically motivated charges against him. Azerbaijan’s international partners should press the government to end its crackdown on civil society and free all those detained for exercising their rights.
European Parliament Presses for Action to End Transnational Repression
The European Parliament in Strasbourg adopted on June 16 its second motion in a year pressing European Union institutions and governments to address transnational repression.
Transnational repression encompasses violations used by states to target, silence, or intimidate critics, particularly nationals and former nationals, who are outside their borders and beyond their territorial jurisdictions. In its worst forms, transnational repression includes killings, attacks, and abductions by government operators or their proxies. Other forms of transnational repression—online harassment, surveillance, denial of consular services, harassment of relatives at home, and abusive extradition requests— are harder to document but have a chilling effect.
Exiled human rights defenders, journalists, and opposition supporters are particularly at risk. But virtually anyone who fled repression or speaks out against abuses can become a target. The European Parliament lists China, Iran, Russia, and Belarus at the top of states engaged in transnational repression in Europe and globally. But others, including Egypt, Azerbaijan, Türkiye, and Rwanda, have a troubling record. In east Africa and southeast Asia, governments appear to facilitate or turn a blind eye to cross-border repression on their soil, exponentially increasing the harm transnational repression does to human rights and rule of law.
In recent years, the EU’s foreign service has boosted its response to transnational repression, with 2025 seeing references in statements to China’s human rights record and in an EU-led resolution on human rights in Eritrea, and sanctions against Iranian officials.
The European Parliament’s motions now provide a more ambitious roadmap for the EU to translate into concrete steps to prevent transnational repression, protect people at risk, and act against those responsible.
To do so, EU institutions and members should investigate transnational repression cases, including the roles of officials aiding or abetting such acts, frame them as violations of human rights, inform and protect victims or potential victims, and avoid complicity with abusive extradition requests or during asylum proceedings.
They should also use foreign policy to ensure states practicing transnational repression face consequences. With its broad diplomatic footprint, the EU can and should speak up without selectivity and make clear that states involved in transnational repression will face political consequences.
Finally, the EU should work with states from all regions to ensure an international response focused on protection and prevention and support efforts by the UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights.
US Congress Approves Immigration Funding Despite Abuses
US President Donald Trump signed the Secure America Act into law on June 10, including roughly $70 billion for immigration enforcement. The legislation funds several agencies through September 2029, including approximately $38 billion for Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and $26 billion for US Customs and Border Protection (CBP).
Congressional approval for this legislation comes after months of controversy in Congress over funding for ICE and CBP, and without adopting essential oversight and accountability reforms.
Over the past year and a half, Human Rights Watch has documented abuses by federal immigration authorities. During the US government’s campaign of raids and detentions throughout the summer of 2025 in Los Angeles, Human Rights Watch found that ICE and CBP agents relied on tactics including detaining people based on their perceived race, ethnicity, or national origin, and using excessive force. These abuses have sowed terror in immigrant communities. In Illinois, Human Rights Watch documented federal agents using excessive force against peaceful protestors, legal observers, volunteer street medics, and journalists outside an ICE detention facility.
Human Rights Watch also documented inhumane immigration detention conditions in Florida in 2025 including overcrowding, degrading treatment and denial of medical care, conditions that may have been linked to two deaths. Recently, people detained at the Delaney Hall facility launched a hunger strike over medical neglect, poor sanitation, spoiled food, bond denials, and alleged coercion to sign deportation-related documents.
Lawmakers and activists have proposed a range of reforms to DHS operations including requiring judicial warrants for entry onto private property, stronger measures to ban racial profiling, restricting masked and unidentified agents, protecting sensitive locations, and strengthening accountability for immigration abuses. By failing to pass any reforms at all, Congress missed a pivotal opportunity to hold officials accountable and improve oversight to prevent future abuses. This risks allowing patterns of violence, medical neglect, inhumane detention, and impunity to continue.
The funding bill’s passage should not be the end of the debate. Congress should use its oversight authority to investigate patterns of abuse in immigration enforcement and detention and introduce reforms and accountability to prevent further abuses. Congress should also press the administration to curb abusive enforcement practices, increase transparency around enforcement operations, improve medical care and conditions in custody, and pursue alternatives to detention.
US Agriculture Bill Cuts Vital Nutrition Aid
On June 4, the United States House of Representatives passed the 2027 agriculture appropriations bill. If enacted in its current state, the bill would cut US$200 million from the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants and Children (WIC) compared to 2026.
The reduction would hit fruit and vegetable benefits for 5.4 million pregnant and postpartum women and young children, disproportionately affecting low-income families relying on the WIC for healthy options amid rising food prices.
The proposed cuts would end virtual WIC services, making the program less accessible, and sharply reduce monthly fruit and vegetable benefits for young children, pregnant women and breastfeeding mothers. For rural families in areas where virtual services are critical, food is costlier, and healthy options are more limited, these changes could hit especially hard.
For more than 30 years, the WIC has enjoyed bipartisan support in the US because of its well‑documented effectiveness. A 2026 report from the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities found the WIC improves nutrition, child development, and health outcomes, reduces household food insecurity, and narrows racial disparities in birth outcomes. It also found women enrolled in the program are more likely to give birth to healthier babies, underscoring its role in maternal and infant health.
Yet this bill marks the second consecutive year the House has advanced WIC cuts aligned with the Trump administration’s budget despite the administration’s stated goals of improving maternal and child health and reducing incidence of chronic disease during childhood.
These cuts risk deepening racial and ethnic disparities in maternal and infant health. Black women in the US face maternal mortality rates over three times higher than white women, while Black, American Indian, and Alaska Native infants die at double the rate of white infants. The WIC helps close these gaps by improving access to nutritious food and supporting healthy pregnancies.
If the Trump administration is serious about improving maternal and child health, it should strengthen, not weaken, essential nutrition programs. With maternal health disparities and food insecurity on the rise, reducing support for a proven program risks undoing decades of progress and placing greater strain on low-income families.
As the bill moves forward, the Senate should reject these cuts and protect WIC’s essential role in supporting maternal and child health.
EU Should Build on Hungary’s Recommitment to ICC
With Hungary's reversal of its decision to leave the International Criminal Court (ICC), the European Union has an opportunity to extend the significance of this moment for international justice well beyond Budapest. EU leaders should state clearly and with one voice in the conclusion of the upcoming June 18-19 European Council meeting that their support for international justice and the ICC is consistent and unwavering.
References to the ICC in European Council conclusions, the statements issued after the quarterly meetings of the EU heads of governments, have been limited in recent years. This is entirely out of step with a court that is pursuing justice for atrocities globally, from Ukraine to Sudan to Palestine, and as it faces threats and attacks from powerful actors, such as Russia and the United States.
Hungary has formally notified the United Nations secretary-general that it will remain a party to the ICC treaty, the Rome Statute. Hungary’s membership was due to end on June 2, following the former Fidesz government’s decision in 2025 to withdraw.
Hungary's decision to stay with the ICC brings it back into alignment with the shared EU position on the court. It is also a hopeful sign that the new government, sworn in on May 9, is taking steps toward restoring respect for the rule of law in the country.
The EU should reaffirm its steady, principled backing for the global rule of law. Regular, meaningful references to the ICC and its essential global mandate in European Council and in ministerial-level conclusions would be a start. So would reaffirming, in concrete language, member states’ commitment to fulfil their obligation to cooperate with the court, including through the enforcement of all arrest warrants.
Better yet, the EU could best protect the ICC’s independence by activating the EU Blocking Statute to defend against the extraterritorial sanctions imposed by the US, a request repeated by several member states, the European Parliament, and civil society.
Hungary's powerful decision to stay with the ICC should provide new momentum to EU efforts to meet attacks with strengthened resolve to ensure victims’ access to justice.
UK Court Upholds ‘Terrorism’ Ban on Palestine Action
On June 15, the Court of Appeal in London upheld the United Kingdom government’s decision to proscribe Palestine Action as a terrorist group. This damaging ruling, which overturns an earlier High Court decision against the government, will likely further inhibit the right to protest in the UK and globally.
Palestine Action was established in 2020 as a “direct action” protest group to oppose Israeli government abuses against Palestinians. The group has targeted Elbit Systems, a defense firm with close ties to the Israeli military.
Since the British government’s 2025 decision to ban the group, around 3,000 people have been arrested, including for simply holding signs saying “I oppose genocide. I support Palestine Action.” Over 700 of these cases are pending in the courts of England and Wales, with many more at the recharges stage.
The Court of Appeal acknowledged that the ban could have a “chilling effect,” dissuading people from expressing their views publicly, but nevertheless found it "justified and proportionate" because Palestine Action used violence to target property. The court expressed deference to the government in matters of national security.
Numerous British and United Nations experts have criticized the UK’s overbroad definition of terrorism. Best practice, described in a 2004 UN Security Council resolution supported by the UK, relates terrorism to acts intended to cause death or serious personal injury, or hostage-taking.
However, criminal damage, including property damage that does not endanger life, should not qualify as terrorism, according to international best practice standards, and should instead fall under normal criminal law.
Defining a protest group as terrorists has created an absurd situation where thousands of people peacefully holding up signs are being charged with supporting terrorism.
On June 12, in a separate criminal trial in London, a judge sentenced four Palestine Action members to between five and seven and a half years in prison for a 2024 raid on an Elbit factory, ruling that a “terrorism connection” to their actions was an aggravating factor.
Human Rights Watch has documented the misuse of counterterrorism powers to stifle dissent in numerous countries, including Tunisia, Sri Lanka, Türkiye, and India. With this proscription, the British government has placed itself alongside governments that attack democratic freedoms and are backsliding on human rights.
Niger Strips Exiled Opposition Leader of Nationality
Niger’s junta leader, Gen. Abdourahamane Tiani, signed on June 11 a decree provisionally stripping Nigerien nationality from Mariama Djibrine, a leading opposition figure living in exile. The measure is based on a 2024 order that created a national database of people suspected of terrorism.
Authorities accuse Djibrine of disseminating “information likely to disturb public order, inciting revolt, and colluding with a foreign power.” The accusations come amid an escalating crackdown on dissent since the military seized power in July 2023.
Djibrine is the president of the Alliance des Démocrates du Sahel (Sahel Democrats’ Alliance), a coalition of Nigerien, Malian, and Burkinabè opposition groups launched in May 2026 in Belgium that advocate for a return to constitutional rule in the three central Sahel countries. During the launch of the Sahel Democrats’ Alliance, Djibrine called for the release of former President Mohamed Bazoum, who remains arbitrarily detained nearly three years after he was overthrown by the junta.
Niger’s terrorism database continues to be a tool for the government to sweep up people without sufficient evidence and deprive them of their nationality. Authorities already used the database to provisionally strip nine people linked to Bazoum of their Nigerien nationality in October 2024. Among them was Abdou Pagoui Hamidine, a former member of Bazoum’s cabinet, who told Human Rights Watch, “Niger’s military authorities have reached a new low by turning nationality into a weapon against dissent.”
In a May interview with a French television program, Djibrine accused Niger’s military authorities of instrumentalizing the justice system to silence critics and condemned the dissolution of Nigerien magistrates’ union.
Niger is a party to the United Nations Convention on the Reduction of Statelessness, which prohibits states from depriving people of their nationality when doing so would leave them stateless.
Stripping people of their nationality not only violates their fundamental rights but creates a climate of fear for all who want to challenge the status quo in Niger. Journalists, activists, and ordinary people alike are forced to weigh their right to free speech against the existential threat of losing their status, identity, and security as citizens.
Nationality should not depend on political loyalty. When it becomes a pawn in the hands of those in power, the junta is demonstrating its disregard for a democratic and rights-respecting Niger.
Brazil: Courts Protect Land Rights in the Amazon
(São Paulo) – Brazilian judicial authorities in two important recent rulings, affirmed the rights of small landholders and Indigenous peoples in the Brazilian Amazon and called on federal authorities to remove illegal occupants, a major driver of illegal deforestation in the region, Human Rights Watch said today.
The decisions condemn federal authorities for their delays in taking steps to remove ‘land grabbers’ from the Cachoeira Seca Indigenous territory and the Terra Nossa Sustainable Development settlement, both in the state of Pará, and affirm the land rights of the lawful residents: Indigenous peoples in Cachoeira Seca, and smallholders in Terra Nossa. The rulings also require the authorities to promptly demonstrate tangible progress toward removing illegal occupants.
“For years, residents of Cachoeira Seca and Terra Nossa have organized to stop these land grabs, despite fearing attacks by ranchers,” said Luciana Téllez Chávez, senior environment researcher at Human Rights Watch. “These rulings vindicate their struggle and require federal authorities to act promptly to protect their rights, their territories, and their forests.”
On June 3, 2026, a federal judge ordered Brazil’s federal land reform agency INCRA (Instituto Nacional de Colonização e Reforma Agrária), to promptly take action to remove illegal occupants from Terra Nossa. This followed a May 31 order by Justice Edson Fachin, President of the Supreme Federal Court, ordering urgent action by the federal government to remove invaders from Cachoeira Seca. Justice Fachin’s decision responded to a request from the Articulation of Indigenous Peoples of Brazil (APIB), a nationwide coalition of Indigenous peoples.
In both cases, the judicial decisions require the federal government to develop a timeline for removal actions and to regularly report on how they are being carried out, maintaining pressure and oversight.
Cattle ranchers have illegally seized land and devastated the livelihoods of lawful residents in the Terra Nossa smallholder settlement and the Cachoeira Seca Indigenous territory, affecting their rights to housing, land, and culture, Human Rights Watch found in an October 2025 report.
Brazil’s federal land reform agency created the rural settlement Terra Nossa for small farmers in 2006. Families were to farm the land, harvest fruits and nuts from the rainforest – which initially constituted 80 percent of the 150,000-hectare settlement – and sell their produce in local markets. Ranchers have, however, illegally encroached on Terra Nossa. They have violently retaliated against people who opposed them. By 2023, 45.3 percent of the total land area of the settlement had been converted into pasture.
Beginning in 2016, the land reform agency surveyed Terra Nossa, ultimately finding 78.5 percent illegally occupied. Yet for years the land reform agency failed to take action to remove illegal ranches and even suggested a plan that would regularize their occupation.
In Cachoeira Seca, the Arara Indigenous people depend on the rainforest in their 733,000-hectare territory. The federal government is legally required to remove non-Indigenous occupants. Instead, ranchers have established more illegal cattle ranches since the formal government recognition of the Indigenous territory in 2016.
The devastation has reduced the availability of game and forest products, restricting Indigenous peoples’ movement in their own territory, and undermining their cultural rights. Cachoeira Seca registered the largest deforested area in an Indigenous territory in the Brazilian Amazon in 2024.
Human Rights Watch analysis of official sources shows that illegal farms in Cachoeira Seca and Terra Nossa sold cattle to several direct suppliers of JBS, the world’s largest meat company. JBS maintained that they monitor the farms of its direct suppliers for compliance with their procurement policy and that, as of January 1, 2026, it would be mandatory for direct suppliers to provide information on their suppliers. However, it has not yet replied to further queries from Human Rights Watch about how this pledge has been carried out.
“These rulings tell perpetrators that justice is catching up with them despite their efforts to obstruct accountability,” Téllez Chávez said. “It is now crucial for federal environmental authorities and law enforcement to execute these judgments and to ensure the safety of community members in Cachoeira Seca and Terra Nossa before, during and after removal operations.”
Abusive Anti-LGBT Proposals Resurface in Türkiye
As Hungary begins to close the chapter on its anti-LGBT era by dropping criminal charges against Pride March organizers, Türkiye is moving in a sharply opposite direction proposals to jail LGBT people.
Turkish media reported in recent days that the Erdoğan government has circulated a brief to its Justice and Development Party lawmakers proposing legal amendments to increase criminalization of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) people. The reported text mirrors the wording of a draft law leaked to the media in October 2025 but which, following an outcry by civil society groups in Türkiye and internationally, never made it for consideration before parliament.
The proposal would punish vaguely worded "attitudes and behaviors contrary to biological sex and public morality", and any act of praising or promoting such conduct, with prison sentences of up to three years.
The proposal would also impose sweeping new restrictions on access to gender-affirming health care by raising the minimum age for sex reassignment to 25, imposing mandatory sterilization before undergoing the procedure, and banning anyone with children from having it done. In Türkiye, reassignment surgery is a prerequisite for a person to obtain legal gender recognition.
Gender-affirming surgeries would in future require four health evaluations at highly government-dependent hospitals. Healthcare providers who perform surgeries without complying with these restrictions could face up to seven years in prison and the and trans people themselves three years.
The proposal is incompatible with the rights to privacy, to recognition before the law, and the right to health under international human rights law.
For the past few years, the Erdogan government has adopted hateful rhetoric against LGBT people, while waving the banner of protecting “family values.” Officials have banned most Pride marches and other LGBT public events for a decade. Courts weaponize existing criminal code provisions, including those on “obscenity,” to arbitrarily prosecute LGBT people and affiliated organizations.
In December 2025, a court ruled to close down one LGBT organization on the basis of social media posts it found “obscene” and “could encourage [LGBT] behaviors.” In May 2026, a popular singer was acquitted after standing trial for a song allegedly about same-sex desire.
Introducing a law that could further criminalize LGBT people and arbitrarily restrict gender-affirming healthcare would further enshrine systematic discrimination and violate Türkiye’s international human rights obligations.
Global Surge in Attacks on Education Continues, Rising More Than 40 Percent Worldwide
(New York) – At least 8,500 attacks on education took place globally in 2024-2025, a more than 40 percent increase from the previous two-year period, according to Education Under Attack 2026, released today by the Global Coalition to Protect Education from Attack (GCPEA). These attacks harmed over 10,600 students, teachers, and education personnel across 83 countries, including 55 not in active armed conflict.
“We believe the true increase is far higher,” said Felicity Pearce, lead researcher for Education Under Attack 2026. “Escalating conflict, shrinking humanitarian access, and widespread information blackouts mean many attacks are never reported.”
As global insecurity and instability increased, levels of conflict were the highest seen since World War II. GCPEA documented the highest numbers of attacks in Colombia, the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), Ethiopia, Haiti, Palestine, and Ukraine. In Ukraine alone, more than 900 attacks on schools were recorded. In Palestine, over 2,000 attacks targeted education, and by the end of 2025, nearly all schools in Gaza were damaged or destroyed. Haiti, newly profiled in this report, experienced over 400 attacks. The highest numbers of people killed or injured were documented in Myanmar, Nigeria, Yemen, and Cameroon.
Girls and women faced heightened risks of violence and exclusion, including targeted attacks on girls’ schools and conflict-related sexual violence in Cameroon, the Central African Republic, Colombia, Haiti, and Nigeria. In Afghanistan, authorities shut down learning centers for girls above grade six and detained female teachers, sustaining their assault on girls’ education.
Reports of the military use of schools nearly doubled; GCPEA identified over 1,900 cases with Colombia, DRC, and Ethiopia particularly affected. Occupation of schools by armed forces or groups not only disrupts learning and damages vital education infrastructure, but it also increases risks of child recruitment, sexual violence, and retaliatory attacks.
The report also highlights the growing use of explosive weapons in populated areas, including drone-borne explosives, in roughly 300 attacks on education. Many occurred during class hours, killing students and educators and forcing prolonged school closures.
GCPEA urges universal endorsement of the Safe Schools Declaration and calls on governments, United Nations agencies, and donors to take five urgent actions:
Strengthen legal protections for children and education systems.End the military use of schools.Sustain and protect global monitoring of attacks.Safeguard education during electoral cycles.Resource early warning and anticipatory action systems.The Global Coalition to Protect Education from Attack (GCPEA) is a coalition of United Nations agencies and non-governmental organizations working in the fields of education in emergencies and protection. The report is the eighth in the Education under Attack series. It analyzes global trends and profiles attacks and military use of schools and universities in 28 countries. Support for Education under Attack 2026 has been generously provided by the Education Above All Foundation, Education Cannot Wait, and the Government of Norway.
Kyrgyzstan: Anti-Trans Bill Threatens Rights
(Bishkek, June 15, 2026) – A harmful draft law before the Kyrgyzstan parliament would prohibit legal gender recognition, ban gender-affirming health care, and restrict information about gender diversity and the possibility of transitioning for children, Human Rights Watch said today.
The bill, which passed its first reading on June 4, 2026, still requires approval at the second and third readings and then the president’s signature to be signed into law. Rights advocates are concerned that the parliament could fast-track the legislation through its remaining readings before the session ends on June 30, leaving little time for meaningful debate or scrutiny.
“This bill is built on dangerous myths about transgender people and would cause immediate, serious harm to people’s lives,” said Syinat Sultanalieva, Central Asia researcher at Human Rights Watch. “The law would strip people of the possibility of legal recognition, push them further into the margins of society, and expose them to discrimination and violence. The parliament should reject it outright.”
If adopted, the bill would eliminate the last remaining pathway for legal gender recognition in Kyrgyzstan and impose a blanket ban on gender-affirming health care, with a narrow exception for “congenital anomalies.” The exception appears to refer to medically unnecessary nonconsensual surgeries on children born with intersex variations.
The bill not only requires parents to raise children strictly according to their “biological sex” but also prohibits “any actions aimed at changing sex self-awareness in minors.” As a result, children would be denied not only mental health support but also information about gender identity. Kyrgyzstan had permitted administrative legal recognition of a person’s affirmed gender but required a medical diagnosis of “transsexualism” until August 2020, when parliament removed the procedure from civil status legislation. Since then, trans people who wished to modify their gender markers on official documents have had to pursue civil lawsuits. In 2024, the government restricted access to gender-affirming health care to those age 25 and older. The new bill would close the remaining avenue for gender recognition and prohibit gender-affirming care altogether.
Forcing transgender people to carry documents that do not reflect their gender identity can expose them to a heightened risk of discrimination in employment, housing, health care, and education, as well as to increased risks of harassment, violence, and extortion, Human Rights Watch said. The UN independent expert on sexual orientation and gender identity has found that the absence of legal gender recognition is linked to elevated rates of physical violence, psychological harm, arbitrary detention, and torture.
The draft law’s provisions affecting children are incompatible with protections guaranteed under both the Kyrgyz Constitution and the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC). The convention’s requirement to prioritize the best interests of the child in all decisions and policies affecting them cannot be reconciled with blanket legislative prohibitions on access to health care and related information. The draft law risks criminalizing psychological support, age-appropriate comprehensive sexuality education, and access to information for transgender and gender-diverse children and youth on their rights.
The proposed ban on legal gender recognition violates rights protected under the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR), including the rights to recognition before the law and to privacy and family. The Human Rights Committee, the treaty body responsible for overseeing implementation of the ICCPR, has specifically recommended on multipleoccasions that governments provide accessible procedures for legal gender recognition based on self-identification and to abolish abusive and disproportionate requirements.
The UN Committee on Eliminating all forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW) has twice raised concerns with Kyrgyzstan specifically on this issue. In 2015, it expressed concern at the absence of a formal procedure for transgender women to amend the gender marker in their identity documents. In 2021, it said that Kyrgyzstan should restore that right and repeal the August 2020 amendments that had eliminated it.
The blanket prohibition on the provision of gender-affirming care, including hormone therapy and surgical procedures, violates the right to the highest attainable standard of physical and mental health under Article 12 of the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (ICESCR).
In 2024, the Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (CESCR), which oversees states’ compliance with the treaty, expressed concern to Kyrgyzstan about discriminatory restrictions on the health autonomy of transgender people in Kyrgyzstan and said that the government should remove disproportionate legal and administrative barriers to gender-affirming health care.
In February 2025, Kyrgyzstan claimed before the UN Human Rights Council that the rights of transgender people in the country are respected, including the right to medical care. On May 15, 2026, UN human rights experts issued a communication warning that the draft law's objectives and key provisions are incompatible with Kyrgyzstan's international human rights obligations, including specific treaty obligations.
Kyrgyzstan’s international partners should raise these concerns in bilateral relations, particularly the European Union, given that implementation of core UN treaties and respect for human rights are among the commitments undertaken by Kyrgyzstan as a step to creating closer economic and political ties.
“Kyrgyzstan has an opportunity to demonstrate its commitment to human rights nationally and internationally by rejecting this bill,” Sultanalieva said. “Instead of rushing through legislation that would harm people, Kyrgyz lawmakers should engage meaningfully with affected communities to develop policies that genuinely protect everyone’s dignity and rights.”
Sri Lanka Detains Rapper Over Video
Police in Sri Lanka have arrested a rapper on terrorism charges over the video of a song he posted online. It is the latest abuse of a draconian counterterrorism law still in use years after successive governments have promised to repeal it.
Sangeethsan Ganeskumar, 24, known by his stage name Hiphop Sangee, was detained under the Prevention of Terrorism Act (PTA) on June 2. He was produced in court the following day and sent for pretrial detention until June 17. Police allege that the video of a song he posted on TikTok “supported or glorified” the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam, a separatist armed group that waged a 26-year civil war against the Sri Lankan state and was defeated in 2009.
The counterterrorism law was first adopted as a “temporary” measure in 1979 but remains in regular use, often to target members of Tamil and Muslim communities and perceived critics of the government. The law grants authorities sweeping powers to impose prolonged detention without charge or judicial oversight and has frequently enabled torture to secure convictions based on forced confessions.
United Nations data found that 49 people were arrested under the law in the first five months of 2025, many from minority communities, including in connection with social media posts. Journalists and activists, especially Tamils, are called in for questioning by counterterrorism police, while civil society organizations face financial interference on the pretext of combatting “terrorist financing.”
In 2017, after Sri Lanka was readmitted to a European Union program known as GSP+, which allows tariff-free access to the EU market conditioned on the implementation of human rights conventions, the then-government promised to repeal the PTA. But nearly a decade later, despite repeated EU calls on Sri Lanka to uphold its commitment, the law remains on the books. The current government pledged prior to being elected in 2024 to repeal the PTA. Instead, it has increased the law’s use, while attempts to draft alternative legislation have floundered.
Sri Lanka should immediately impose a moratorium on use of the PTA. And after years of unmet pledges by Sri Lanka to repeal the law, the EU should reflect on its implementation of the GSP+ scheme, especially as Sri Lanka prepares to apply for renewed membership later this year.
Qatar: New Efforts to Deport Baha’i Leaders
(Beirut) – The Qatari authorities since March 2026 have ordered at least four people with roles in key institutions of the minority Baha’i religion to leave the country, Human Rights Watch said today, based on information from informed sources. The four were ordered to leave without due process and with no legal pathway to challenge the orders.
The people ordered to leave, who have lived in Qatar for decades and have families there, risk deportation in violation of their right to family life. Qatari authorities’ longstandingdiscrimination against Baha’is separates families and results in the loss of employment and income. Human Rights Watch has documented asignificant rise in persecution of Baha’is since the beginning of the armed conflict between Israel, the United States, and Iran.
“Qatari authorities have sought external support and sympathy as the target of Iranian attacks while continuing their repression in Qatar,” said Michael Page, deputy Middle East director at Human Rights Watch. “Qatar’s deportations of Baha’is will uproot families and tear them apart.”
Human Rights Watch interviewed three people between April and June with knowledge of the cases.
The Baha’i faith is centered around the unity of all faiths and people. Baha’i followers are frequently discriminated against in Qatar, Egypt, and Yemen, and subjected to the crime against humanity of persecution in Iran.
On March 3, a Baha’i married couple was told to appear at the Qatar Ministry of Interior’s Search and Follow-Up department the following day, the source said. At the ministry on March 4, Qatari authorities informed them that they must leave Qatar and will be banned from returning without providing a reason or a way to challenge the decision.
The wife, born and raised in Qatar to Iranian parents and who has lived her entire life in Qatar, serves as an auxiliary board member, a voluntary pastoral role within the Baha’i community’s institutions. Her husband, who has lived in Qatar for 15 years, is a member of the National Spiritual Assembly of the Baha’is in Qatar, an elected body that tends to the affairs of Baha’is in the country.
The couple requested permission to remain in Qatar until the end of the school year as they have two children enrolled in schools in the country, the source said. They were told to submit an appeal along with a letter from the Ministry of Education that certified that their children are enrolled in school, and the authorities extended the deadline to leave Qatar until the end of the school year, at the end of June. Qatari authorities confiscated the family’s passports until they present confirmed flight reservations, the source said.
On April 7, another auxiliary board member, a 43-year-old man who has lived in Qatar all his life, was summoned and verbally informed of a deportation order. He was told that he had to leave Qatar by April 21, even though he had valid residency until August 2028, an informed source said. No legal grounds or pathway for appeal were provided, the source said, though the date by which he must leave was extended to June 17.
He is the primary caretaker of his 80-year-old mother, who moved to Qatar from Iran when she was 21, and the sponsor for her residency in the country, the source said. “She came to Qatar before Qatar became a country and now has to pack 60 years of her life and leave,” the source said.
On April 22, Moin Yeganeh, 55, a former member of the National Spiritual Assembly of the Baha’is in Qatar, who is also a lifelong resident of Qatar, was told to report to the same office and was detained for a week, a source said. Yeganeh was held with other migrants awaiting deportation and frequently interrogated without a lawyer, the source said. He was released on April 30 on the condition that he would leave Qatar by end of May, though the deadline was extended to June 16.
Yeganeh’s parents, 89 and 81, who have lived in Qatar for more than 60 years, rely on him for care and are under his sponsorship for their legal residency in Qatar. If he is deported, his parents will lose their residencies and either have to leave Qatar with him or find a new sponsor.
Qatar should cancel the orders to all four Baha’i members to leave the country, Human Rights Watch said.
Any members of the Baha’i community who hold Iranian nationality would be at serious risk of persecution if Qatari authorities returned them to Iran, in potential violation of the international legal principle of nonrefoulement. The principle requires governments to refrain from returning or transferring people to places where they would face serious harm.
United Nations experts have repeatedly expressed their concern regarding Qatar’s discriminatory treatment of Bahai’s. In May, UN experts called on Qatar to reverse the deportations, expressing concerns about “the potential erasure of the Baha’i religious community from Qatar.”
This is not the first time Qatar has cracked down on members of Qatar’s Baha’i institutions. In January 2025, Qatari authorities issued a deportation order for a member of the National Spiritual Assembly for the Baha’is in Qatar. A high-ranking Qatari religious figure told him that if he announced his conversion to Sunni Islam, he could “make the deportation go away,” he told Human Rights Watch.
In April 2025, authorities arrested and detained Remy Rowhani, chair of the National Spiritual Assembly of the Baha’is in Qatar, and sentenced him to five years in prison on abusive charges that violated his rights to freedom of speech and religion. In September, Qatar’s Court of Appeal reversed Rowhani’s conviction and acquitted him after pressure from the UN, rightsorganizations, media, and the US Commission on International Religious Freedoms.
Under international human rights law, including article 18 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and the 1981 UN Declaration on the Elimination of All Forms of Intolerance and Discrimination Based on Religion or Belief, states are obligated to protect every individual's right to hold, practice, and change their religion free from coercion, discrimination, or interference. Qatar's Constitution also provides a guarantee of freedom of worship in article 50.
“Qatar should halt the plan to deport these individuals,” Page said. “The continuing repression of members of the Baha’i community violates both Qatar’s own laws and international law.”
New Law Requires Parental Consent for Sex Ed in Italy
Last week, Italy’s senate passed the “Valditara bill,” a reform that could significantly restrict young people’s access to comprehensive sexuality education. The bill requires parents to provide consent before children can receive sexuality education in middle and high schools, and bans it entirely in elementary school.
Education Minister Giuseppe Valditara, who had championed the bill, said after the vote that the goal was to protect children from “the confusion of gender propaganda” and “give parents back a say on issues of gender identity” for their children. He said biological sex education will still be taught as part of science classes.
Comprehensive Sexuality Education is an essential part of children’s rights to information, health, and education, rights grounded in universal human rights standards, and which Italy has undertaken binding legal obligations to uphold. The UN Special Rapporteur on the right to education emphasized that sexuality education “must be free of prejudices and stereotypes” and must protect all children from discrimination, including on the basis of sexual orientation or gender identity.
Unlike many European countries, sexuality education is not compulsory in schools in Italy. A 2025 survey by Save the Children and the polling firm, Ipsos, found that only 47 percent of Italian children had received sexuality education while 57 percent turned to the web to learn about sexually transmitted infections. The same survey found that 95 percent of parents considered school-based sex and relationship education useful and 91 percent of parents agree that it should be a compulsory subject.
Because sexuality education has never been mandatory, some schools already sought parental consent for some activities. The new reform imposes far stricter requirements: schools must notify parents of any sexuality education initiatives, disclose external speakers, and share teaching materials a week in advance for written consent, while also providing alternative activities for students who opt out. These administrative burdens risk discouraging schools from offering sexuality education altogether.
Comprehensive Sexuality Education equips young people with evidence-based information about their bodies, relationships, consent, and sexual and reproductive health; reduces sexual risk taking and the spread of STIs; promotes greater respect for human rights and gender equality; and can help prevent gender-based violence.
Young people have a right to information that keeps them safe, healthy, and empowered. Instead of creating new obstacles, Italy should take meaningful steps to guarantee that all students receive comprehensive, evidence-based sexuality education, including guidance on consent and respectful relationships.
ILO Adopts Landmark Treaty on Gig Work
(Geneva) – The International Labour Organization’s (ILO) adoption of a new global treaty for decent working conditions in the gig economy is a major step toward protecting the rights of millions of workers worldwide, Human Rights Watch said today.
At its 114th session in Geneva, on June 12, 2026, the International Labour Conference adopted the ILO Convention No. 193 concerning Decent Work in the Platform Economy, the first global treaty to set binding labor standards for gig work. The convention addresses long-standing gaps in protection for workers whose jobs are managed through digital labor platforms, including on pay, safety and health, social security, algorithmic management, and correct classification, a key issue for determining whether workers receive protections they are entitled to. The vote was 406 to 8, with 36 abstentions.
“The adoption of this treaty is a turning point for millions of platform workers who are denied labor protections,” said Lena Simet, senior economic justice adviser at Human Rights Watch. “Governments have recognized that companies cannot use new technologies as a loophole to avoid workers’ rights, including fair pay, safe working conditions, and social security.”
Governments should promptly ratify the convention and implement it in domestic law, Human Rights Watch said. Governments should ensure that workers and their organizations are meaningfully involved in implementation and enforcement at the national level.
The convention is the result of a multi-year process. In 2023, the ILO Governing Body placed the issue on the agenda, opening two rounds of negotiations, in 2025 and 2026. Human Rights Watch provided input throughout the drafting process, calling for strong protections for platform workers in line with their human rights.
Platform, or “gig,” work is growing rapidly around the world, from taxi and food delivery to care work and online data tasks. The World Bank has estimated that 435 million people globally earn income through labor platforms. Human Rights Watch and other rights and workers organizations have documented that these workers often face low and unpredictable earnings, unsafe conditions, lack of social security, and little recourse when companies cut off their access to work without justification.
Many of these companies treat workers as self-employed or independent contractors, even while controlling key parts of the job through automated systems, including pay, task allocation, performance monitoring, ratings, and account suspension or deactivation. This often denies workers labor protections and shifts the costs and risks of work onto them.
The new convention directly addresses this issue by requiring governments to take measures to ensure that gig workers are correctly classified, based mainly on how their work is performed and paid.
Its broad scope is also significant. The convention applies to platform workers in the formal and informal economy, including work carried out in person, such as taxi and delivery, or online, such as data labelling, content moderation, or other digital tasks.
Some protections apply regardless of classification. These include freedom of association and collective bargaining, elimination of forced labor and child labor, non-discrimination, and a safe and healthy working environment. These protections are important because some of these workers may remain outside an employment relationship even when classification rules are properly applied.
Other protections are tied to employment status. The treaty requires paying workers in a timely manner and providing clear information about their pay and any deductions. They must provide those in an employment relationship with at least the applicable minimum wage, excluding tips, and compensation for work-related expenses in line with national law and practice. For workers not considered employees, governments should consider whether minimum wages should also apply. The treaty addresses a major gap for many workers, ensuring access to social security on terms no less favorable than those with the same employment status.
The convention further requires companies to inform workers about automated systems used to monitor or evaluate their work or generate decisions related to their work, and about how those systems affect working conditions or access to work. It provides for workers’ right to request a written explanation and review, with appropriate human involvement, of significant automated decisions that adversely affect their work, including nonpayment, suspension, or deactivation.
In addition, it guarantees safeguards for workers’ privacy rights and personal data, and protection against discriminatory or otherwise unlawful suspensions, deactivations, or terminations.
“For too long platform workers have been guinea pigs for the rollout of algorithmic management tools that use their own data to undermine and exploit them,” said Tom West, programme director at Privacy International. “This Convention recognises the need for transparency, accountability, and rights over personal data to reset the rules of the game. Governments and employers can now turn to improving their rules, regulations and practices to put an end to algorithmic abuse at work.”
The treaty includes specific protections for migrants and refugee platform workers, requiring governments to prevent abuses and provide adequate protections during recruitment, engagement, and work. Human Rights Watch has documented that migrant delivery workers in the Middle East can face recruitment-related debt, dangerous heat, lack of social security, and little recourse when platforms or intermediaries fail to protect them.
The ILO process was expected to produce a recommendation alongside the convention, a non-binding instrument that would have provided more detailed guidance on implementation, but it was not finalized due to lack of time. Future negotiations should prioritize completing that work.
Countries voting in favor included Australia, Mexico, Namibia, Spain, Oman, and Indonesia. Countries voting against included the United States and New Zealand. Countries abstaining included Argentina, Bangladesh, the UK, Libya, and Chile. During negotiations, employers’ representatives and a small number of governments sought to limit the scope of rights by arguing for more flexible and less prescriptive rules, while workers’ representatives and the majority of governments called for stronger protections to end rights abuses.
“The adoption of this Convention is a landmark moment, and it now needs to be translated into real changes in workers’ lives,” Simet said. “As AI and automated management increasingly shape work, governments should move quickly to ratify and enforce the Convention, including by ensuring that companies cannot use contractual labels or opaque algorithms to deny workers the protections they are entitled to.”
Belarus: Crackdown on an Independent University
(Berlin) – Belarusian authorities are carrying out a countrywide intimidation campaign against former and current students of the European Humanities University (EHU), Human Rights Watch said today.
The authorities have searched the homes of dozens of students and their families and harassed, interrogated, and detained them. The actions violate their rights to freedom of thought, expression, and association.
“The vicious targeting of the community of free academic thinkers fostered by the EHU is a blatant attack by the Belarusian government on academic freedoms, free expression, and the right to education,” said Hugh Williamson, Europe and Central Asia director at Human Rights Watch. “Governments negotiating with Belarus should call on Minsk to put an end to the political crackdown and respect its international human rights commitments.”
The EHU is a private, independent university established in 1992 in Minsk, Belarus to foster democratic values and strengthen civil society. In 2004, the Belarusian Ministry of Education revoked the university’s license following a series of unsuccessful attempts to undermine the university’s autonomy. In 2005, the university reopened in Vilnius, Lithuania, with several thousand students, mostly Belarusians, graduating since.
On June 2, 2026, Belarusian law enforcement agents searched the homes of family members of current students, alumni, and even former students who did not complete their studies and formally questioned the family members. Human Rights Center Viasna, which provided legal assistance, said that the interrogations were connected to a criminal investigation into “aiding” and “financing extremist activities.” The investigation was apparently opened against an “unidentified group of people” who have allegedly collected and organized the collection of funds to support the university since April 30, 2016.
The criminal case stemmed from the April 2026 designation by the Belarus Supreme Court of the university as an “extremist organization.” The designation was based on an application filed by the Belarusian prosecutor general in September 2025, following a recommendation by the State Security Committee (KGB), and means that all the university’s activities, as well as the use of its signs and symbols, are prohibited in Belarus.
The application contends that the university “destabilized the socio-political situation in the country,” assisted “radically politicized formations,” and was used by special forces of foreign governments to damage Belarusian interests. At the time of the designation, the university reportedly had about 1,500 students, around 80 per cent of them Belarusians.
In the month following the designation, about 100 students dropped out of the university out of fear of prosecution. Several students and lecturers had quit earlier following the Minsk Central District Court’s designation of the university’s social media pages as “extremist materials” in August 2025.
Evgenia Belkina, the coordinator of Viasna’s volunteer service, told Human Rights Watch that since June 2, KGB officers have carried out more than 60 house searches and interrogations across the country in relation to the case.
The KGB officers mostly targeted relatives of current students. Belkina said that most parents questioned were told that they were designated as witnesses in the case. Several people were briefly detained as well. The officers told the families that sending money to their children studying at the university could qualify as funding extremism.
In at least 20 cases, the officers demanded that parents call their children to pressure them to drop out of the university and return to Belarus with a written confirmation of their withdrawal.
The officers also targeted former students who had graduated or dropped out after 2019.
In May, the head of the prosecutor’s department in the Vitsyebsk region stated that following the designation by the Supreme Court, “any financial operations, including tuition fees and donations, qualify as financing extremist activities under Article 361-2 of the Criminal Code, punishable with up to five years in prison.”
He also said that employment, teaching, and continuous education at the university “are interpreted as participation in extremist formation” punishable with up to six years in prison, while using symbols or disseminating materials or following the university on social media are also prosecutable offenses.
Belarusian authorities notoriously use “extremism” charges for politically motivated prosecution of civil society actors, including independent journalists, human rights defenders, and political opponents, Human Rights Watch said.
Both academic freedom and the right to education are protected under international human rights law, including the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights and the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR). Using “extremism” legislation to prosecute former and current students, including for studying abroad, not only violates academic freedom and the right to education, but also the rights to freedom of opinion, expression and association, also guaranteed by the ICCPR.
“The state intimidation campaign targeting the EHU’s community demonstrates that there has been no systemic change in the human rights situation in the country,” Williamson said. “It also constitutes a blatant act of transnational repression carried out by the Belarusian authorities against Belarusians living abroad.”